Ideology In South Africa Iii

Questions of media representation

• The media plays a significant role in society. • It is often the source of knowledge of what we know about the world. • However, what views of the world does the media represent?

Bias and stereotype • The idea of bias – partiality • Groups complain about how they are represented or reported • The media can lack accuracy or fairness • Normally, bias is used to refer to factual representations such as in the news, current affairs and documentaries

• In fictional representations, people talk about stereotypes. • These are representations that are misleading, incomplete or negative of a group of people in society • The media have been criticized for instance, for its stereotypical rep of women, gays and lesbians, and other minority groups in simplistic and derogatory ways

• In many ways, the media can adopt the ideology of dominant groups in their representation of minority groups through biased reporting or stereotypical representations

Media, ideology and power in SA • In today’s class- interested in the media, ideology and power in South Africa • We will look at how the media in 2002 legitimated the neo-liberal economic policies of post-apartheid SA. • Neo-liberal economic policies embrace ideas of the free market, globalization, flexibility and the privatization of the economy • This was read against the ANC economic restructuring policy that promised to use a socialist approach to solve the country’s poverty and economic imbalances.

• Thus we will look at the war between the ANC (government) and Cosatu, the trade union movement in SA • In 1994, one of the economic premises of the ANC was to embrace a socialist approach to solving the country’s economic imbalances. • This meant using its position of power to empower the people of SA who had been previously disadvantaged by the apartheid government • However, the ANC backed out of this plan.

• Cosatu on the other hand, was defined through its communist endevours. • It was committed to ensuring that black people got a chance to be a part of the growing SA economy. • Thus they were disappointed when the ANC backed out of the plan to focus their energies on the poor and previously disadvantaged.

• The plan that the ANC promised to stick to was called the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) strategy • It was meant for the majority poor • This was redirected. A new market guided economy that endorsed neo-liberalism – guided by financial and monetary forces – created an environment that was conducive for economic growth.

• This shift from the RDP approach created a rift between the ANC and Cosatu. • Cosatu and its supporters felt that the government was being hypocritical because they retained the RDP policies in their official policy framework. • It is from this standpoint that we look at the discontent of trade union Cosatu in 2002.

• The argument is that the government (power) embraced the policy of neo-liberalism which emphasized free-market trading as opposed to the closed economy indicated through the RDP, hence marginalizing the latter • Cosatu, together with the SACP (communist party) showed discontent and there was speculation that the two could even form an opposition party against the ANC.

• We are interested therefore in how the media reported this unfolding relationship between Cosatu and ANC • We will cite specific phrases that were used in newspaper reports about the Cosatu strike to show how the dominant group (ANC) influenced how the strike and Cosatu’s actions were reported. • This will illustrate how the media work at an ideological level. They both justified the neoliberal approach of ANC while discrediting the Cosatu

Conceptualizing dominant discourses in media texts • Thus we need to re-cap some of the theories we have already learnt in class. • First, the notion of social contruction of texts. Stuart Hall observed that there is a perennial hegemonic struggle for meanings and representations in all media texts. • He argued that things and events do not contain or propose their own meaning independent of language. Rather, meaning is a social production and language is the medium in which meanings are produced.

• However, for one meaning to be regularly produced, it has to win a kind of credibility, legitimacy or taken-or-grantedness • Such messages are signified – their meaning is founded on shared assumptions or conventions • Meanings vary, necessitating the interventions of codes, shared assumptions, is a single meaning is to be produced from a particular text.

• In the case of dominant discourses, society is constructed as consensual by nature – where society appears to have members who have the same interest and an equal share of power. • In the absense of a universal consensus of what things mean, the more important events get signified in ideologically powerful ways. • The media do not just simply reflect or sustain social consensus rather they help to produce consensus or manufacture consent • Such consensus is constructed around definitions that favour the hegemony of the powerful.

• Thus if we look at the Cosatu-ANC example, we can attempt to see how the media operated in relation to the strike • The media legitimized the restructuring and the rescaling of unrestrained global capitalism. Through production and reproduction using language of everyday, ie by making discourse common place, the logic of a contemporary neoliberal global economy prevailed.

• The government was placed as dominant to Cosatu, where Cosatu was presented as errant and disruptive • Compare those reports to how Tuesday’s the taxi strike was reported by the media • In the same way, the shortcomings of the trade union were highlighted, while in the process, privatization was legitimized through the media’s lack of engagement with it

• Taxi drivers riot.-what is being reported – Disruptive – Inconsiderate – Wasteful – businesses closed

• RBT – what is not being asked – Who owns it – Why has there not been a conversation with the taxi drivers and the public – Why is it being authorized and what does it mean for the taxi industry

Media reports • The media openly supported globalization – globalization supports free trade, benefits only a few, however, it is normalized by the media • This normalization enables politicians to propose economic and social adjustments, by naturalizing globalization that makes change appear inevitable and necessary • Nothing is questioned

• In the Cosatu example, dominant globalization discourses in the press were critical • 1. They emphasized how the strike would harm SA’s reputation – think of how the taxi strike could have been framed along 2010 world-cup. • Such reports liken the country to a picture that can be harmed by the strikes • In one article, the strike could potentially “spook foreign investors from SA, and only serve to reinforce SA’s image abroad as a strike crazy banana republic”.

• 2. Media texts also question Cosatu’s strike in an era of economic globalization. They depict Cosatu as ignorant with statements such as “those calling for the strike do not understand the realities of globalization” • The ANC is seen to plead with Cosatu to abandon strike

• 3. The media show privatization as the macroeconomic policy of choice around the world. • They compare SA to Pakistan, China and other communist countries that are embracing privatization. • These media texts fail to interrogate the philosophy underpinning the ANC neoliberal policies • They go on to use global trends and practices as examples of increased success.

• They legitimize neo-liberalism. • The texts argue that countries like SA whose goal is poverty reduction and equitable wealth distribution can only attain this through the creation of wealth. • “The state must stand back and allow market forces to develop organically”

Legitimation • Such media texts show authority establishing and cultivating belief in its legitimacy. • In the case of Cosatu, there was need to show that the ANC was in charge. Several reports argued that ‘no amount of pressure would change the government’s position’. • It is clear from these examples how the media supports the government’s position on neoliberalism

End • Enjoy the break!!!!